Portraits are everywhere. One finds them not just in museums and galleries, but also in newspapers and magazines, in the homes of people and in the boardrooms of companies, on stamps and coins, on millions of cell phones and computers. Despite its all-pervasiveness, portraiture has not received much philosophical attention, contemporary philosophy remaining largely silent on the subject. Philosophers with different areas of expertise and art historians with a philosophical knack discuss this enduring and continuously fascinating genre.

Speakers include: Diarmuid Costello, Reader in Philosophy, University of Warwick; Stacie Friend, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Birkbeck; Martin Hammer, Professor of Art History, University of Kent; Hans Maes, Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art, University of Kent; Bence Nanay, Professor of Philosophy, University of Antwerp/University of Cambridge; Kathleen Stock, Reader in Philosophy, University of Sussex; portrait artist Nadav Kander, and Max Houghton, London College of Communication. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Laura Cumming, art critic of The Observer, is no longer able to participate.